Corruption Eradication Committee and the Indonesian Government Ensures Accountability of the Merah Putih Village Cooperative
Jakarta — The government through the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs (Kemenkop UKM) continues to oversee accountability in the implementation of the national strategic program of the Merah Putih Village/Sub-district Cooperative (Kopdes/Kel Merah Putih). In order to ensure that this program runs transparently and is free from corruption, Kemenkop has partnered with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) as a partner for supervision and education.
The Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs, Budi Arie Setiadi, emphasized that this collaboration is very important considering the large scale of the program that will involve 80,000 village cooperatives throughout Indonesia.
“This is a national strategic program and the budget is large. Therefore, we ask for the assistance of the KPK to provide education, anti-corruption education for Kopdes/Kel Merah Putih managers, supervision, and risk mitigation,” Budi emphasized in his statement.
He added that the presence of the KPK is not only as a supervisor after the program is running (ex-post), but also as a strategic partner from the beginning of planning, to ensure clean and trusted cooperative governance.
“We want the KPK to be present from the beginning, not only as a supervisor, but also a strategic partner in building a prevention system. This is part of preventive governance,” he said.
To ensure maximum synergy, the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs proposed four concrete steps. First, the formation of the Red and White Kopdes Supervision Coordination Team between the Ministry of Cooperatives and the KPK.
“The goal is to develop an early warning system, map risk-prone areas, and design a community-based complaint mechanism,” he explained.
Second, the integration of the Red and White Kopdes/Kel reporting system with the KPK’s supervision dashboard to create real-time transparency and risk-based audits.
Third, the implementation of anti-corruption training and technical assistance for program implementers, notaries, and local stakeholders, in order to increase the capacity and accountability of cooperative managers.
Fourth, the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) or institutional cooperation agreement to strengthen cross-sector support on an ongoing basis.
“This synergy will also strengthen our coordination with the National Task Force for Kopdes/Kel Merah Putih,” added Budi.
Furthermore, he emphasized that village cooperatives must become the center of local economic growth, not just administrative projects.
“The cooperatives that are formed are expected to grow as independent people’s business entities that have a real impact, not just administrative complements or temporary program channels,” he concluded.
